Meters are used to measure electricity usage. For example, a meter may be connected to power lines entering a building to measure electricity usage in the building. An electric meter socket assembly is mounted on the building to connect the meter to the power lines. The meter socket assembly includes a meter socket sub-assembly secured within an enclosure. The meter socket subassembly includes terminals to which the power lines are electrically connected, and jaw contacts corresponding to the respective terminals for receiving blade connectors extending from the electric meter. The terminals and the jaw contacts are mounted on an electrically non-conductive base, which is in turn secured to a back wall of an enclosure of the electric meter socket assembly.
The power lines may carry up to 600 volts and 100 to 200 amps of current, for example, through the terminals, the jaw contacts, and the blades on the electric meter. This leads to resistive heating of the meter socket assembly components, particularly at the jaw contacts and the blades which are relatively thin. To reduce the temperature of the electrically conductive components, the prior art solution teaches increasing the thermal mass of the terminals, thereby drawing heat away from the jaw contacts and the blades.